What would have caused the death of Chief Lawrence Ugochukwu Ifewulu just eleven months after the messy murder of his 35-year-old charming wife, Martha Ifeoma Ifewulu, who was gruesomely slaughtered in her home in the Oke-Afa area of Lagos, on December 1, 2014.
The late Chief Ifewulu died three weeks ago of some strange illness, but family members said he died of complications from hypertension and diabetes. According to a source close to the family, the late Ifewulu had some blisters on his hand and legs giving reasons to suspect that he might have died of unnatural circumstances. The death of Chief Ifewulu has left his four pretty children orphans.
A visit by Sunday Sun to the Ifewulu compound on Thursday showed that the gate to his house was securely locked with nobody in sight. While the controversy over the death of his wife raged last year, the late Ifewulu had come out openly to alleged that his late wife may have met her untimely death in the hands of her boyfriend, one Collins Nwafor, who he suspected could have done so to prevent her from divulging their evil plans to kill him (Ifewulu), dispose him of his assets, and elope to Canada with his children.
Having accused his wife of infidelity, Ifewulu had spoken to Sunday Sun, substantiating his suspicion. His words: “I had no two persons I hold as prime suspects. I am not having any doubt or maybe suspecting any two or three people. Even if he (Nwafor) did not execute it by himself, he sent some people to carry out the operation. I am quite sure of who killed my wife; he is responsible. This is beyond suspicion. This guy went as far as telling me that he had been dating my wife for two years. He went as far as telling me that if they kill me, they would sell my house and then he would take her and the kids to Canada. After all he told me about all that had been transpiring between my wife and himself, he expected me to divorce my wife but I did not do so. He would have thought that so many things were hidden and that if I should continue to live with my wife, she would tell me all and he would not be safe any more.”
The said Nwafor was accused to have been cited in a picture he took with late Ifeoma where he added the comment, “Perfect match”.
Late Ifewulu had claimed that his late wife had confessed to the illicit affair with Nwafor, in a rather repentant manner which called for his forgiving heart.
At the instance of the murder of late Ifeoma that black afternoon, Nwafor allegedly fled for his dear life so as not to be apprehended by the police who had come for him at his residence which was only a mile away from that of the Ifewulus.
Further findings had revealed that late Ifeoma had, on several occasions, sent the two maids living with the family to deliver both food and money to her to-be suspected killer.
On the fateful day of the incident on December 1, the corpse of late Ifeoma was discovered by her maid who had just come back from school with the children at 3.30pm. As they got into the house through the rear staircase, the maid and the children were confronted by the sight of blood splashed all over the floor, and flowing freely down the stairs. The maid tip-toed upstairs, wondering where the blood had come from. It was then that she and the children saw the dead body of Ifeoma sprawled on the floor in a pool of blood. The maid raised the alarm that attracted the attention of their female neighbour. The sight of Ifeoma with the silky-soft skin of her throat hideously slashed with a knife as one would do to a goat was gut-wrenching. The female neighbour equally screamed upon sighting the corpse. It was long sustained for help that brought other neighbours from nearby house rushing into the compound to know what was amiss. They too were shocked to the marrow. While still sobbing, the female neighbour called Ifewulu on the phone, and frantically urged him to rush back home immediately, but the neighbour kept him in the dark about the death of his wife. All the way home, Ifewulu wondered what could have happened. It was when Ifewulu got home at 5.00pm that he was told about the murder of his wife. Soon after the chairman of the estate called the DPO of Ejigbo Police Division and informed him about the incident, and the police rushed to the scene within 30 minutes.
Since the demise of Ifeoma, nothing has been heard about Nwafor, excerpt that he spoke from his hide-out to a media house (not Sunday Sun).
Nwafor’s confession
“I am Collins Nwafor , 39, from Umuawulu in Awka South L.G.A, Anambra State. I read Marketing at the IMT, Enugu. I left school in 1999 and served in Edo State in 2010. After that, I proceeded to Port-Harcourt where I started life as a clearing agent with Chapman Resources.
From there, I went to South Africa where I stayed for about four years dealing on telephone accessories. I came back to Nigeria in 2011 and later proceeded to Europe, Germany and Norway where I spent about two years. I came back in September 2012.
On June 13, 2013, I met Mrs. Ifeoma Ifewulu at her shop in Ago Palace Way, Lagos. I was passing through the Mall on that street, I saw people promoting their goods in the shop and both of us watched them after which we exchanged numbers.
From there, we started exchanging calls and we became intimate friends. The first time we made love was in her car, a green Honda Baby Boy, after she dropped me in front of my house. We were there till 12 midnight and I asked if she was married but she did not reply. Later, she spent a weekend with me and when I insisted on knowing her marital status, she told me that her husband is a big man but she wanted to feel good.
She said she needed company and that she had two boys and two girls. From then, our love blossomed. After sometime, she told me that her husband’s birthday was in August, I advised her how to commemorate it with him, buy food and take the kids to his office as a surprise which she did and she later told me that her husband appreciated it. We continued our relationship till December when she even spent the Christmas with me after her husband bought a Toyota Corolla for her.
I also discovered that she had many other boyfriends. My investigation showed that I was the fourth in the series of boyfriends she had. Nevertheless, we continued our relationship till April when her mother died”. other boyfriends. My investigation
In his confession, Nwafor dissociated himself from the murder of his concubine while pointing an accusing finger at a wealthy and influential Clearing and Forwarding Agent (name withheld) who he claimed was crushing after Ifeoma and had always enticed her with money.
Despite that facts had emerged on the demise of mother of four kids in broad day light, her husband too, Chief, died on Friday, October 30. The controversy behind the death in the family of the Ifewulus remains what may have left all with a rhetorical questioning — Who killed Ifeoma? How and why did Chief Ifewulu die almost a year after the controversial death of his beloved wife?
As if Christmas seasons are meant to be horrible and dark moments for them, the four bereaved children of the late couple – Chidera, Ugochuchukwu, Mesioma and Onyinyechi – are still counting the irreparable loss of their parents.
A lady who simply introduced herself as a niece to late Chief Ifewulu, told our correspondent that Ifewulu died as a result of acute diabetes and hypertension. “He was sick and you know he has been diabetic and hypertensive. A week before his death, his sugar level rose to 300mg while his BP rose to about 180 mg. When we rushed him to the hospital, doctors tried to control the BP and sugar level but they couldn’t and that was how we decided to rush him to another hospital but he died on the way.
She also revealed that late Ifewulu had been sick since he married Ifeoma, and his health condition aggravated when his wife died.
The four children of the deceased are reportedly at present in the custody of a relation, Ngozi, while the wake keep has been slated for December 3, 2015 and his burial for January 7-9, 2016.
